Tyrannofex Conversion

After months and months of sitting on my desk it's finally done.  I picked the Carnifex kit as my prize for Fantasy 'Ard Boyz Prelims and intended to make a Tyrannofex, so I've had it on my desk since April.  I found this conversion very difficult.  The hardest part was the upper carapace.  I used Instant Mold to make the cannons.

Originally I was going to have his claws gouged in the ground like a Biovore for support, but I couldn't bear to cut the claws off at the tip.  I like them too much.

All I have left to do to finish the Tyranid range is the Doom of Malan'Tai and a Tyranid Prime.  If I beat GW to the finish line it will be a sad day, as I am a slow worker and the book has been out for a year and a half.  Next on my workbench though is a Skaven Mordheim warband!

Using Instant Mold

Vacation is over.  Back to work.  I recently purchased some Instant Mold from CoolMiniOrNot and am thoroughly impressed with it.  Below you can see the first piece I did.

It's pretty good!  The only thing you need to be aware of is that air bubbles can get caught in fine details. Watch out for that.  You can mitigate it slightly by the way you put the green stuff in.

You can also make two part molds.  This is a little trickier.  What's this image above?  You'll see soon!

It's really simple to use.  The thing to remember is patience.  Don't peel the mold off while the GS is curing, and don't peel the mold off while it's cooling.  Let it cool normally.  I'm not sure if you can put it in the fridge to speed things up, but don't peel it off early or it will deform.

This is going to be a vital tool in my conversion arsenal.  Anyone who does a lot of converting should have some of this.  It's not expensive and opens new doors of conversion possibilities.

Getting Two Models From One Kit

We all like to get the most model for our money.  A recent trend with GW kits is a multi-kit, a kit which can make several models.  Examples include the Fire Prism/Nightspinner, Screaming Bell/Plague Furnace, and more recently the Plagueclaw Catapult/Warp Lightning Cannon.

In some cases it's easy to magnetize the two kits like the Prism/Nightspinner, or difficult to magnetize in the case of the Bell/Furnace.  But in this case with the PCC/WLC I figured I could go beyond magnetizing it and actually split the kit into two models.  There are several pieces that the kit shares to make this difficult, but with some creativity it's easy to overcome.

As you can see, I removed the Warpstone counterweight.  This is the most obvious shared part of the kit, as well as the two metallic collars for the Warpstone.  I replaced it with the head of a standard from a Plague Monk kit, some jewelry chain and an old plastic gear I found laying around.  I wrapped the chain around a brass rod, stuck the gear on then fit it in between the struts.  I don't think it would actually function in real life, but that's the beauty of Skaven creations, the more slapadash they look the better they are.  If you're wondering how it fires, and other science facts, just repeat to yourself, "It's just a game, I should really just relax."

This has nothing to do with the conversion, but I head swapped two of the crew members with Plague Monk heads.  It's run by Plague Monks, they wouldn't wear gas masks.  They embrace the plague!  I had to shave the neck a bit to make it fit, and it's slightly larger than it should be but I don't care.  It's a walking rat-man, realism is kind of a moot point.  I left the armored crew member with a gas mask, I figured he's the Skryre representative who does all the complicated runnings of the machine.

Here's a close up of the gear/chain assembly.

Now I have left over the entire cannon assembly.  I'm technically missing the support bar which is the firing arm of the catapult, but I don't think the cannon needs it aesthetically.  I just have to mount the cannon on something, convert some crew and I'm set.  I'm considering mounting it on the back of a Rat Ogre, or building a frame out of sprues.  With Fantasy 'Ard Boyz coming up I may end up taking both models which means I'd better get to work on it.  Stay tuned!

Tyranid Harpy Conversion

After months of this thing sitting on my desk it's finally done.  The most difficult part of this conversion was trying to make matching left and right venom cannons.  I'm still not satisfied with them, maybe I should have mounted them on the wings.  Oh well.  I'm not going to do any more work on it though.

Swarmlord WIP

Here's my current Swarmlord.  The arms are magnetic so it can be a regular tyrant if I wish, I customized the tail to make him stand out a bit more and that weird double-tail thing in the codex picture doesn't do it for me.  I'm still not satisfied with the swords, I think they need some detail or more hollowing, I'm not sure which.  I'm open to suggestions on that.

"Gets Hot" Marine

I made this for a local painting contest. The contest was to take a standard tactical marine and paint it. Conversions were legal, so I decided to make the classic marine from the Plasma Weapons demotivator. You know the one. I didn't have the proper right arm so I used some pins and greenstuff, as well as a metal plasma gun so he is pretty arm-heavy. I used Dark Angels colors because I'm the most familiar with those. This is going to a friend when he gets back from his overseas deployment.

I attempted glow effects but they didn't come out the way I wanted them to.

Painted Tervigon

This has been painted for a month or so now but it's taken me this long to get it photographed. Mostly laziness. Here it is!

The Parasite of Mortrex

I think that's how you spell it. Here's mine.







I tried to use a lot of negative space in this composition. The metal wings were a pain to work with and make the model very top heavy but aesthetics win in this case. The painting of the carapace is a lot sloppier than I would like but I was in a hurry. I used parts from a Ravener, a coat hanger, bits from a Genestealer, Winged Nightmare wings and a bit from the monstrous creature sprue.

As for the ovipositor I looked at the ichneumon wasp and other creatures that have similar reproductive habits to the Parasite. I wanted something powerful and slim. I know that he technically has rending claws but the scything talons were an aesthetic choice. I just didn't think it looked good with the rending claws.

Also, the Rippers are magnetic and are wound counters.

Jetbike Autarch Conversion, Round 2

After my Autarch fell apart when I was trying to enter a contest a while back, I figured I could do better, and redid the conversion. I've had this one in the works for a while. I think it's close to done, but I need to do some more greenstuffing.






What's different about this one from the old one is pretty evident, I moved the gun to the underside, and magnetized it. I can swap it out with a Reaper launcher if I wish. I put the Dire Avenger camera thing on the hood, and put a shield I found in an old bitz box up there too. I had to round out the edges to make it look better, and it was very tricky getting it to stay on the curved hood.

I also replaced the wings with that weird symbol thing that comes with the Dire Avengers. I cut off the staff and such, and just kept the shape. I filled in the details with greenstuff, but I want to go over it and create new detail on top.

If you look carefully, underneath the wings there's a round bit from a grav-tank. I stuck that underneath because this jetbike is missing its wings (that's why I had to create my own). I stuck that bit under there to make it less plain, as there's only a piece of plasticard covering the gaps.

Tyrant Guard Update

Here's my newest Tyrant Guard update. I repositioned the arms to make the shield more defensive, and buffed up the head carapace even further with a leftover carapace bit from a carnifex. I'm more satisfied with this one. Now I just need to learn how to take better pictures of my miniatures.

Minor Tyrant Guard Conversion

While at the local (and by local I mean 1.5 hours away) Battle Bunker to pick up 5th Edition, they were having the "Mercenary Night" where people come to sell their armies and make trades. There was a guy there who had loads of third edition stuff. He happened to have a bunch of Spore Mines and two Tyrant Guard. I didn't like the third edition model too much, but the price was just too good to give up.

The picture quality is not the best here, but you can see that I added some spikes on his shield. These were from the Genestealer scything talons. Using Green Stuff I also made him blind as the 4th Edition fluff makes them, and extended his carapace to match the hive tyrant. It looked a little plain before this, but I think it's a little better now.

I am considering re-doing the spikes on the shield as I'm not fully satisfied with them. His legs are also too spindly, and I may do something about that but I'm not sure what. They are just cannon fodder so I shouldn't worry too much about them, but my hive tyrant needs a proper retinue.